Russia Frees Activist Who Was Investigating Soldiers’ Deaths

By Alexandra Odynova

Oct. 20, 2014

MOSCOW — A Russian activist who sought to document the deaths of soldiers believed to have been sent covertly to fight in Ukraine was released from custody on Monday for health reasons, according to an advocacy group.

The Soldiers’ Mothers Committee in St. Petersburg, an organization that defends the rights of soldiers, announced last week that one of its associates working in southern Russia, Lyudmila Bogatenkova, 73, had been placed in pretrial detention on fraud charges. The organization called her arrest “an act of intimidation connected to her activities,” in a statement.

Ms. Bogatenkova, who was said to be in poor health, was released after she pledged not to leave her town, Budyonnovsk, in the Stavropol region, the organization’s spokesman said Monday.

Ms. Bogatenkova was investigating the deaths of soldiers who by official accounts served in the southern Rostov region near the border with Ukraine, but who activists suspected were actually killed or wounded while fighting in Ukraine.